Nothing Left to Lose, or, How Not to Start a Commune Review

Thanks to the author and publisher for gifting me a copy of Nothing Left to Lose in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis

In pursuit of a meaningful life, Jeff Richards and his friend Rick Sager decide to start a commune out in the Rocky Mountains. It doesn’t go as planned. Instead of the self-sufficient ranch they envision, they can only afford a crumbling crash pad in Denver; half their friends who agreed to join them (including most of the women) decide to move to Boulder instead; romantic entanglements between group members cause disarray; drug-addicted drifters steal their record collections; and though Rick and Jeff fall in love with every hippie chick that crosses their paths, they rarely fall in love back. Through it all, they learn you don’t always accomplish what you set out to do, but you can still take pride in the attempt.

My Thoughts on Nothing Left to Lose

Normally, I don’t like to do an in-depth review on memoirs. I’ve always felt a little weird reviewing someone’s life story. But Nothing Left to Lose sounded too fun to pass up on. If you’ve been here a minute, you know that I’m fascinated by communes. I jumped at the chance to read a memoir by someone who actively tried to start one.

Unfortunately, though, at least the first quarter of this book was an in-depth discussion on how much weed the friends smoked in college, which coincidentally is how the commune idea came about. That got old about thirty pages in.

After jumping that first hurdle, there were some passages and tidbits that were quite interesting. I enjoyed reading about 60s counterculture from someone that actually experienced it. But ultimately, I think this book could have used more editing. It felt disjointed in parts, and it could have been polished up just a bit more. It has good bones, but there were just a few technical things that diminished my enjoyment.

About the Author

Jeff Richards is the author of “Everyone Worth Knowing,” “Open Country: A Civil War Novel in Stories,” and the domestic noir novel “Lady Killer.” His fiction, essays, and cowboy poetry have appeared in over thirty literary journals and anthologies. A fan of blues music, he lives near his kids in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Connie, and his dog, Billy Bones.